Rental property insurance in Georgia: choosing a policy in Batumi

What can be insured in a rental apartment

Rental property insurance in Georgia is usually put together from three parts. It is worth telling them apart before discussing the price, because each one covers its own risk and each has its own limits.

In apartment policies from Georgian insurers, the list of risks usually includes fire and smoke, water damage from the neighbours, failures of the water supply, drains and wiring, theft, vandalism, strong wind, hail and earthquake. Each company has its own set of risks and its own wording, so we compare not the names of the packages but the text of the terms.

Liability to the neighbours below

In a Batumi new build there is almost always someone else's renovation under the apartment. A burst supply hose under the sink, a washing machine whose hose has come off or a leak through the shower drain reaches the neighbour below within an hour, and sometimes the floor below that too. The neighbour with the ruined ceiling will come to the owner, not to the guest who checked out three days later.

A policy on your own apartment often doesn't cover this risk on its own. With some insurers, liability to the neighbours is part of the package, with others it is added as a separate option. For example, in GPI's “Comfort” apartment policy, according to the terms on the insurer's website at the time of publication, it is added to the package for an extra charge. We choose the liability limit according to the renovations in the building: flooding a neighbour with expensive finishes costs more than repairing your own ceiling.

Letting in the policy terms: what we read carefully

An insurer may assess an apartment where guests or a tenant live differently from one where the owner lives. So before the policy is taken out, we check the terms for the following:

• whether letting is allowed, and whether there is a separate condition for short-term rental;
• whether damage caused by a tenant or a guest is covered: some insurers name it among the risks, others list it among the exclusions;
• the excess, that is, the amount the insurer doesn't pay out on each claim;
• how damage from wind and rain is recognised: in the same GPI “Comfort” policy, this requires a certificate from the weather service stating that the event exceeded the set thresholds;
• the deadline for reporting a claim, and whether repairs can start before the insurer's inspection;
• whether gradual damage is excluded, for example mould from prolonged damp.

If the terms are only available in Georgian, we summarise the key points for you in English or Russian before you sign. The choice of policy remains yours.

How we choose a policy

1. We look at the apartment, the finishes and the appliances, and find out how and to whom you let it.
2. We make an inventory with photos and video and collect any receipts for appliances and furniture that you still have.
3. We request quotes from 3–4 insurers that cover apartments in Georgia, for example Aldagi, GPI and TBC Insurance.
4. We bring them together in one table: risks, limits, excess, liability to the neighbours, conditions for letting, premium.
5. You choose an option, we arrange the policy and put it, together with the inventory, in the apartment's folder.
6. We put the renewal date in the calendar and remind you of it in advance in the monthly report.

The sum insured for the finishes is easiest to work out from the renovation estimate. If we did the renovation, the handover file has a list of materials with product codes, and it shows what reinstatement will cost. Understating the sum to get a lower premium means that, if something happens, you get a payout that won't cover the repairs.

An insurance claim: what we do in the first days

The first steps are the same as in any emergency: turn off the water or switch off the circuit at the consumer unit, photograph and film everything before cleaning up, and warn the neighbours and the building management company. If the apartment is under our management, the manager does this, and how we come out to a leak or a short circuit at night is described separately.

After that, every day counts. We notify the insurer within the deadline in the policy and ask whether it will send its own loss adjuster before the finishes are opened up. Our damage report with an assessment remains a contractor's document, not an independent survey, but it gives the insurer's loss adjuster something to rely on: photos, moisture readings, an estimate.

We support the claim through to a decision: the claim form, the meeting with the loss adjuster, any missing documents. The decision on whether to pay and how much is made by the insurer under the policy terms, so we don't promise a payout. We price the drying-out and the new finishes in a separate estimate, as water damage repair for the apartment.

How to reduce the risk before you even take out a policy

Insurance pays for part of the damage, but it doesn't spare you a week of messages with the neighbour and a closed calendar. So while we make the inventory, we look at where water could escape in this particular apartment: old supply hoses, the washing machine hose, the shower drain. Some things we replace straight away, and for an apartment that stands empty for long periods we suggest valves with leak sensors as part of a smart home.

After a claim, the insurer may ask when the apartment was last checked. Visit reports with dates and photos answer that question, as with home watch for an apartment. For a tenant on a one-year lease, we write into the lease an obligation to report a leak immediately and to let a tradesman in, and in the guest instructions we show where the main water valve is.

How much rental property insurance costs in Georgia

Choosing and arranging a policy with us costs a one-off 78–120 ₾. That is our work: comparing quotes from 3–4 insurers, going through the exclusions for a rental apartment, making an inventory with photos and arranging the policy. You pay the insurance premium to the insurer yourself, and it is not included in our price.

As a guide, the annual premium for an apartment usually comes to 150–500 ₾, and liability insurance for the neighbours to 50–400 ₾ a year. These amounts are set by the insurer based on the floor area, the finishes, the limits and the excess, and they don't affect our price. Supporting an insurance claim costs 240–360 ₾ with us. A damage report and assessment after a flood, leak protection and visits to an empty apartment are listed in the price table on this page.

Choosing a policy costs more for a large apartment with expensive finishes and appliances, where the inventory is longer, and for several apartments let in different formats. We name the final cost of our work after inspecting the apartment and agreeing the scope, and you see the premium for each policy in the comparison table before you pay.